The Edward Weston - Fiftieth Anniversary Portfolio: 1902 - 1952. This edition limited to one hundred copies. Bound by Perry G. Davis, San Francisco. November 1951. There are 12 prints in the portfolio, bearing the dates from 1927-1952 100 of these portolios were assembled; this one was purchased by Robert V. Stratton, in 1952, and personally signed by Weston to him -see inside cover of portfolio. Reproductions of some of these photographs appeared in the "Aperture Monograph", Grossman Publishers, NY, 1971 in an article titled: Edward Weston, the flame of recognition. Quote: "When I was very young–say in my early forties–I defined art as "outer experssion of inner growth." Note: by "art" I didn't mean just painting. And I didn't mean Art in quotes. In this age we have artistic butchers and bakers, and hosts of artistic photographers. Once in Los Angeles I saw a sing, "artistic lots for sale." I can't define art any better today, but my work has changed. Art is not something apart to be learned from books of rules; it is a living thing which depends on full participation. As we grow in life, so we grow in art, each of us in his unique way. The foregoing thoughts are directly connected with my selections for this Portfolio. I was faced with a great decision, that of choosing tweleve photographs to represent fifty years of work. Impossible! Yet it had to be done. Question finally came, should I choose on a historical basis, or should the choice be based on the photograph's value regardless of date? I decided on the latter approach, and since my most recent work is the sum total of all that has gone before (even the soft-focus periods cannot be disregarded) my way was clear: the selections are mostly from the work of the last fifteen years. Subject matter played its part in the choosing. I could not find a room for six landscapes and four nudes, thus excluding a dune, a tree, or a rock. And I have tried to avoid work which has been widely collected or published. In so doing I may have left out a few favorites to make place for several not so well known, but quite as important. As to the audience who will own or see this Portfolio, some will be below me on the ladder of growth, some on the same rung, others above me looking down. To all I hope these photographs will add some new note to their exoperience. –EDWARD WESTON September, 1951, Wildcat Hill, Carmel Highlands, California. -From his portfolio